Carlos Coloma

Carlos Coloma de Saa, 1st Marquis de Espenar (9 February 1566-23 November 1637) was a general of the Spanish Empire who fought in the French Wars of Religion, Anglo-Spanish War, and the Thirty Years War. He married into Burgundian nobility and became the Marquis of Espenar and also the commander of the Army of Flanders from 1631 to 1634; he is best known for translating works of the Roman historian Tacitus into Spanish.

Biography
Carlos Coloma was the fourth son of fourteen children, and was born in Alicante in the Province of Alicante on the eastern coast of Spain. He enlisted in the Spanish Army in 1581 and fought in Portugal, Sicily, the Netherlands, and Germany, and in the Siege of Doullens in 1595 (during the Anglo-Spanish War) he took part in the storming of the French fort.

In 1617, Coloma became the Govenror of Cambrai and he commanded the army that invaded the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1621 during the Thirty Years' War. After the lull in the fighting, he served as Ambassador to England, but when war broke out with England in 1624, he was sent to capture the city of Breda from Maurice of Orange. He is depicted in the painting "the Surrender of Breda" by Diego Velazquez, who painted the scene in which Justin of Nassau handed over the keys of the city to the Genoese general Ambrogio Spinola.

In 1631, Coloma was appointed as commander of the Army of Flanders, but he returned to Spain in 1634.